WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned, an official said on Monday, ending a controversial tenure as chief law enforcement officer that blemished the administration of President George W. Bush.

Gonzales was to make a statement at the Justice Department at 10:30 EDT. Bush was also expected to make a statement about Gonzales Monday morning, but would not be announcing a replacement, a senior administration official said.

A senior administration official said U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement will serve as acting Attorney General, amid speculation that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff could be a candidate for a permanent replacement.

First off, I didn't realize that Chertoff was a lawyer, not that the DoJ has had any interest in law since 2001. Second, the curious thing is that this resignation follows Gonzalez' statement to Senator Arlen Spector (R-PA) that he would be staying to fix the dysfunctionality at Justice, created in large part by his ham-handed handling of the firing of US Attorneys in 2005, among other issues.

And clearly, Bush would have been happy to have his partner-in-crime, literally, stay on. Thick as thieves, those two, and I suspect when history has its final say on the Bush administration, crimes we don't even suspect right now will have been traced back to those two.

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing